Former
Windsor Park shuttler Mastercraftsman (IRE) is no stranger to Group I success
as a sire but may have soared to new heights with star filly Alpha Centauri, who
posted her third consecutive win at the highest level overnight when winning
the Group I Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket.
A brilliant winner of the Group I Irish Thousand Guineas and then the
Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, Alpha Centauri has been flying in recent
months and the best may still be to come.
A homebred for the Niarchos family trained by Jessica Harrington, Alpha
Centauri coasted home under Colm O'Donoghue to win the one mile contest by four
and a half lengths in a dominant display taking her overall record to five wins
and a second from eight starts.
"Alpha Centauri will probably go to
Deauville next (Group I Prix Jacques Le Marois), to take on the colts, and I
know the Niarchos family love the Breeders' Cup, so we have that option later
in the year too, but either way the owners are keen to take on the colts now.
She's just an amazing filly, she really is. She is so relaxed, stands there and
has all the photographs taken and just goes away. I sometimes worry that she is
almost too relaxed before races but that's just her," said Jessica Harrington.
Alpha Centauri is a half-sister to stakes-winner Tenth Star and is from Alpha
Lupi, an unraced Rahy daughter of Champion French 3YO Filly East of the Moon, a
half-sister to .Group I winner and champion sire Kingmambo from champion mare
Miesque, who won the Breeders Cup Mile twice among her 10 Group I victories.
She is one of 50 stakes-winners for Danehill Dancer's dashing grey son
Mastercraftsman, who remains on the Coolmore Ireland roster at a fee of 25,000
euros.